What to do When Would you do anything for your children? Sure, you would. As mothers we typically do our best for our family – take care of their needs. While talking to my newly married daughter about things in general, I mentioned my blog’s new look and upcoming posts. She then asked if I […]

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Make a Bridged Stencil From Any Image: When I first tried stenciling, I worked from drawings and traced the images onto marking paper. I could make black and white stencils this way, but it was difficult to produce color stencils or stencils with more than one tone. With this method I ca…

Awesome wartime book about being frugal in one's household - "save what you have, use what you have". Excellent illustrations! Copyright 1944 Whitman Publishing Company, written by Ruth Morton, illustrated by Hedwig Jo Meixner.

Yesterday we set out determined to make our own dress forms for the Etsy Labs and thought we'd share the love with you guys if you want to...

Crafting Instant Digital Download Printable Wall Art image 2000px x 2000 px .png Crafting: Because every household needs a box labeled "Miscellaneous Bits I Swear Will Come in Handy".

Learn all about everything from bookmaking to lacemaking in this guide to crafts from the Middle Ages. My experiments with medieval crafts are based on lists of craft guilds of the Middle Ages from about 1300 A.D. in Europe, and some lists of household accounts, ships' cargoes, and tax regulations.

How to wash walls fast, the painless way. This cleaning method saves so much time, energy, & takes most of the stress out of washing painted walls. Learn how to clean and disinfect walls the easy way.

Thousands of people get creative with items on hand, from bubble wrap to their (very good) dogs

Lois Ericson shows you how to create uniquely colored and patterned fabrics with ordinary household bleach.

Roll up your sleeves—these tips make cleaning your home seem almost effortless

Lois Ericson shows you how to create uniquely colored and patterned fabrics with ordinary household bleach.

To get the most out of an open floor living room, use these ideas for decorating, layout tips, and more.

I LOVE a clean, well functioning home. Who doesn't? A clean house feels peaceful... happy... organized. {image courtesy of rockabyebabymus...

Oh, look. Me in a dress. Shocker. Yesterday, I dyed. Twice. And after some hemming and hawing, I did some hemming. On the dress. But I chose to skip the hawing (what the heck is that, anyway?) So I thought I'd share it with you as this week's DIY. Mostly because there are some serious do's and don'ts when it comes to dying (of which I am the authority on the don'ts) and partly because my other DIY is currently Resting-In-Pieces in the trash can. Ahem. So here's the dress before the dying. I know, I love it too. I snapped this photo a couple years ago for my belt shop. Funny thing is, I got more questions on the dress than the belt. I remember the day I found this dress, the very thrift store and the goofy squeal I made when I found it. [This is off-topic but...(btw, if ever we were to meet in person, you would find that many of my sentences begin with that phrase)...is it just me or does that photo look like it should be in some sort of pharmaceutical ad? You know, like it should have superfine print at the bottom that reads: If you suffer from the desire to take coy photos of yourself, Notbeingadork, might not be right for you. Side effects may include: dressing like someone your age, not wearing bumpits and having a cell phone that is less than 7 years old.] And then, this happened. I remember this day also. It had been a hot one and I had sweated. A lot. Obviously. I took it to the cleaners who wanted nothing to do with it. They claimed the only way to fix it would be to remove the red piping, bleach the dress and reattach said piping. My response: Like, ew. That sounds hard. So I attacked it with a bleach pen to no avail. I pouted and grumbled and wadded it up into a ball and kicked it around in the laundry room. Then hubs said, "Why don't you just dye it?" Oh, yeah. Duh. Now, when it comes to dying fabric, I do know a thing or two. Thing One: (in my best Joan Crawford voice) Never use RIT dye. Ever! Seriously, I know you see it on the grocery shelf and it sounds so easy but it stinks. You'd be better off dying with Kool-Aid. Thing Two: Use Procion MX Dye. It's seriously the best. You won't find this on your grocery shelf or even at your local craft store, sadly. My favorite place is from the sweet and kind people at Dharma Trading Company. You can call them on the phone and ask them plenty of questions. They've helped me and my mom army when we tie-dye 400 t-shirts for our annual fundraiser. I chose to dye in my washer, although you can use the stove top if the idea freaks you out. Besides the dye, you just need non-iodized salt (found at the grocery) and soda ash (bought from Dharma). You must follow these directions closely for best results. Looking at the spooky storm clouds that brought nothing to my dead and dry yard. Gee, thanks. After the first dye, where I was a little shy with the dye mix, I was left with this light pink. I wore it on my errand running but wasn't thrilled with the color. It was a little too Tums Tablets Pink for me. Oh, I wanted to show you the back. Don't you love how it ties? It's a vintage Act I dress...I don't know much about this brand, do you? I have a couple vintage Act I and Act II dresses and I love the style. I asked hubs, "Well? What do you think?" And he gave me his classic I-don't-wanna-hurt-her-feelings-but-I-just-can't-lie phrase: "Well, it's not my cup of tea. But if you like it..." After the second dying I'm still not sure about the pink. It's now a little Pepto Pink for me...I'm thinking of going darker. Or not. I can't decide. Maybe this is what the "hawing" in hemming and hawing means. Oh and the hemming. What do you think? After wearing it around on Monday, I decided it was just too long. I took 6" off of the bottom before wearing it on Tuesday. That's right, I wore the same dress two days in a row. That should make for an interesting "What I Wore this Week", don't you think? Thank you for dropping by. I do hope all of my friends in the states have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July!

Do you have some old t-shirts you just can’t part with? Well, you can take those treasured t-shirts and make them into a meaningful quilt that can be treasured always. Check out How to Make a T-Shirt Quilt over at Tatertots and Jello. It’s a fun craft to do with your teen or teenage. You can […]

There’s a lot of quality humor to be found on social media—it’s great if you ever need a quick pick-me-up after a long day at work or school. Whatever you might think of X (formerly Twitter), you can’t deny that there are some top-tier everyday comedians on there!

Safety pins are far more useful than you think.

From kids' crafts to storage containers, there's plenty of creative egg carton uses. Don't throw away your egg cartons, figure out how to reuse instead.

Fun acid/base experiment for kids of all ages. Uses only common household ingredients. No heat required.

Maybe you are passionate about domesticity or simply love the Stepford Wives films. Now you can be a Stepford Wife too!